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Quickstart

This guide gets Border running in your Node.js application.

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1. Install

npm install @dotsetlabs/border

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2. Initialize

Add a single import at the top of your entry file: 
import { init } from "@dotsetlabs/border";

init();
That’s it. All outbound fetch() and http.request() calls are now monitored.

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3. Configure Destinations

Define what PII types are allowed for each destination: 
init({
  destinationPolicies: [
    // Payment processor needs credit cards
    { domain: "*.stripe.com", allowedPiiTypes: ["credit_card", "email"] },
    
    // Analytics should never get financial data
    { domain: "*.segment.io", blockedPiiTypes: ["ssn", "credit_card"] },
    
    // Internal APIs bypass all scanning
    { domain: "api.internal.com", bypass: true },
  ],
});

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4. Test with Dry-Run

Start in dry-run mode to see what would be redacted without modifying requests: 
init({
  dryRun: true,  // Log detections, don't redact
  debug: true,   // Verbose output
});

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Example Output

[Border] Active (dry-run)
[Border] HTTP/HTTPS hooks installed
[Border] Undici/fetch hooks installed

# When a request contains PII:
[Border] DRY-RUN: Would redact 2 PII types in POST https://api.example.com
  - ssn: 1
  - credit_card: 1

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5. Enable Protection

Remove dryRun to enable live redaction: 
init({
  destinationPolicies: [
    { domain: "*.stripe.com", allowedPiiTypes: ["credit_card", "email"] },
  ],
  // dryRun: false (default)
});

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What Gets Detected

Border detects 20+ PII types including:
CategoryTypes
FinancialCredit cards, IBAN, ABA routing
PersonalEmail, phone, SSN, passport
CredentialsAWS keys, Stripe keys, GitHub tokens, JWTs
NetworkIPv4, IPv6, MAC addresses
See PII Types for the full list.

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Next Steps

Configuration

All initialization options

Blessed Destinations

Per-domain policies

Audit Logging

Track redactions for compliance